The Grand Old American Pastime Of Blowing Things Up
In judicious hands, the ability to blow things up represents Americans' fearless legacy of harnessing the powers of nature in the pursuit of innovation.
By Elle Reynolds
July 2, 2021
When I was a kid, we always celebrated Independence Day by going down to my grandparents’ house. They lived on a lake, and you could walk five houses down in either direction and know just about every single neighbor, half of whom were relatives.
After an afternoon of eating boiled peanuts and hot dogs and jumping off the dock, all the kids knew the best part came when it got dark. We’d all go out to the end of the dock, dads and uncles lugging boxes of fireworks, and wait expectantly for the navy sky to explode.
Each child got a sparkler, and if we were lucky we got to help light the big rockets. If we were really lucky, a black powder cannon made from the driveshaft of an old truck would make an appearance, and fire smoky blanks into the open air over the water.
There’s something connecting the American spirit with the love of blowing things up. We shoved dynamite into mountains to lay train tracks across the continent. We created rockets powerful enough to shoot men into space.
In evil hands, explosives are a formidable means of taking human life, making it all the more important for the arsenals of democracy to hold such evildoers to account. But in judicious hands, the ability to blow things up represents Americans’ fearless legacy of harnessing the powers of nature in the pursuit of innovation.
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https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/02/the-grand-old-american-pastime-of-blowing-things-up/
